Rocky Long lives in Ocean Beach, not exactly a perfect fit for many college football coaches who prefer the high life to a hamburger at Hodad’s or breakfast at Old Townhouse. But although he has left the 1960s behind — and a wonderful slice of OB has not — Long slips comfortably between the sheets of one of the more unique and fascinating communities on the West Coast.

He’s down to earth. He says what’s on his mind. He’s fearless. He’s funny. His 62 years have not eroded his rough edges. He doesn’t concern himself with clothing or frills, saying he’d send his guys out to play in practice rags if it meant a win. They do not say that at trendy Oregon, the House of Nike.

Long reminds me so much of former San Diego State coach Claude Gilbert, who had no phony to him, and probably won a whole lot of football games because of it. They both will look you in the eye and tell you what they think. You must earn their trust.

As it turns out, Long loves a good mystery. But when it’s a two-sided enigma, involving not just his own team but the one with which he’s about to open his season — Washington, up there Saturday night, in the loudspeaker that is Seattle’s CenturyLink Field — it’s doubly perplexing.

The Aztecs’ second-year head coach can’t go to the last page and find a denouement, because it hasn’t been written. And he certainly can’t stroll down OB’s Newport Avenue, sniff some incense and hope to find the answer from a fortune teller.

“I have no idea if we’re good or not any good at all,” he says.

The problem here is Long has a new quarterback in transfer Ryan Katz (although an experienced starter at Oregon State), several raw offensive and defensive linemen, and must replace protean tailback Ronnie Hillman, who left early for the NFL.

Plus, there’s always that Kicker Thing, an amazing problem that has cost this program so many wins over the years (including 2011), that Long says probably won’t be decided until Friday. Incredible. “It’s a mystery to me,” Long says, “but we’ll know a lot more by next week.”

The problem at Washington is not the offense run by head coach Steve Sarkisian, which averaged more than 30 points a year ago and returns enough players to be very dangerous. It’s the Huskies’ defense, which was awful in 2011. Justin Wilcox, who did good time at Boise State and Tennessee, is their new defensive coordinator.

Long has a line on how Wilcox coaches defense, and while it would be unusual for a coordinator to totally change his way of thinking, Rocky rules nothing out. But he’s had no choice but to practice against Wilcox video.

“All good coaches take a look at their personnel and adjust,” Long says. “We can only practice what we know. We could end up seeing something different, and that would worry me. I would worry less if we were an experienced offensive team, but we’re not an experienced offensive team.

“If we don’t see what we’ve practiced against, we could be in big trouble.”

Long of course isn’t the least bit worried about playing a Pac-12 team. He insists that outside the top of some of these conferences, his league, for now the Mountain West, can play with any of the others and be consistently successful.

“Get to the middle of the pack on down and there’s not much difference,” he says. “It’s all hype.”

Long cares about results, not cosmetics and national fluff. His goal at this stage is to go to a bowl game, not the national championship. Don’t try to shake the realist out of him.

His concern is that he has a very young football team. The 2011 club was senior-loaded, but with very few juniors. So now Long has a group that, while experienced in some spots, is terribly young in others.

“Last year, we had a lot of veteran players in key positions,” he says. “We had all five offensive linemen back, and our quarterback and our running back and defensive linemen. We were a much older team. That’s why a lot of the guys starting now didn’t play.

“Last year, we had a much better idea going in how we were going to play.”

All he can do now is coach what he has, and there is talent and speed and quickness here. Opening at Washington, ranked 27th on the Associated Press poll, may appear daunting, but the Huskies are several full moons shy of the USCs, Alabamas and LSUs of the college football world.

Maybe that’s why there hasn’t been much buzz in the locker room. Unlike last year, when the Aztecs played at Michigan with all the Brady Hoke nonsense, these guys just seem to be going about their business.

“We were kind of worked up,” veteran center Alec Johnson says. “We made a big deal out of it.”

Long doesn’t see it now.

“When a team gets overly excited about playing another team, it means you’re not good enough,” Long says. “Our team has been as calm as I’ve seen a team.”